Posted by John Pereira, special to ESPN.com
It was a surprisingly light night in the NHL, with only two games on the schedule. Both games pitted division leaders against teams struggling through somewhat disappointing seasons thus far.
The Colorado Avalanche took an early lead and never looked back as they beat the Los Angeles Kings on Monday night, 4-2. Ryan Smyth and Jaroslav Hlinka scored slightly more than a minute apart early in the first period for Colorado. After enduring a rough patch for the better part of November, Smyth has been en fuego since Dec. 1. He has 14 points in just eight games during that span and has to be considered a solid top option at left wing for the remainder of the season.
The pendulum in goal for Colorado has once again swung toward Peter Budaj. Budaj has started three straight games for the Avalanche and won them all, leaving Jose Theodore on the bench since Dec. 12. Budaj looked good in goal again on the night, stopping 19 of 21 shots. I'd take a look at your waiver wire; he's still available in a few ESPN leagues.
The other game on the night had a familiar story line to what we have seen many times this season. The Detroit Red Wings won again. Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and Jiri Hudler all scored in the shootout to give the Red Wings a 4-3 win against Washington. Embarrassingly for Washington goaltender Olaf Kolzig, though, all three used the same move to score.
As far as facts that actually impact fantasy, Tomas Holmstrom scored twice in the win, giving him 30 points in 31 games this season. I'm still kicking myself for passing him up in the middle rounds of my draft for players who no doubt are not having the same type of season. Washington's two Alexanders (Semin and Ovechkin) both scored on the night as well. It has to be nice for Semin owners to hear that, as the early-round pick has struggled mightily this season. Monitor his next few games as he could rebound and be a great buy-low option for the second half of the season.
John Pereira is a fantasy hockey analyst for ESPN.com.
